Resignation and Notice Period in Morocco
If you are thinking about leaving your job in Morocco, two questions always come up: how to resign properly and how much notice you owe your employer. The Labour Code governs both, and a misstep can cost you compensation.
The essentials in brief
Resigning from an open-ended contract requires a written document whose signature is certified by the competent authority [Art. 34]. You must then observe a notice period, except in cases of serious misconduct or force majeure [Art. 43]. This period runs from the day after notification [Art. 44]. Disregarding it exposes the responsible party to a notice indemnity [Art. 51]. A few situations exempt you from notice or suspend it.
Resigning: a written document, not an impulse
In Morocco, you do not resign with a quick, furtive email. An open-ended contract may end by the employee's will, but on one precise condition: a resignation bearing a signature certified by the competent authority [Art. 34]. In practice, you formalise your departure and have your signature certified by the authorised administrative office. This formality protects everyone. It prevents an employer from inventing a resignation you never gave, and it prevents you from claiming you never signed.
Once the resignation is given, you are bound only by the notice rules set out in the section dealing with that period [Art. 34]. In other words: the formality and the notice. Nothing more exotic.
This is where people often go wrong. They believe a verbal "amicable" departure is enough. Put it in writing, have it certified, keep a copy.
The notice period: who owes it, and why
The unilateral termination of an open-ended contract is subject, in the absence of serious misconduct by the other party, to observance of the notice period [Art. 43]. This rule cuts both ways. The employer who dismisses owes it. The employee who resigns owes it too.
The notice period's timing and duration are set by legislative and regulatory texts, the employment contract, the collective agreement, the internal regulations, or custom [Art. 43]. The Labour Code therefore does not fix a single figure: it refers to these various sources. Check your contract. Check your collective agreement. Check the internal regulations.
But there are safeguards. Any clause setting a notice period shorter than the duration provided by legislative or regulatory texts is automatically null and void [Art. 43]. And in all cases, any clause setting notice at less than eight days is null [Art. 43]. An absolute floor, then. No one can make you sign a derisory notice period.
Frankly, read the notice clause in your contract before you hand in your resignation, not after.
When notice begins — and when it stops
The starting point is clear. The notice period begins to run on the day after notification of the decision to terminate the contract [Art. 44]. You notify today? The clock starts tomorrow. Not the same day.
Notice can also be suspended. The Code provides for two cases: during the period of temporary incapacity when the employee is the victim of an occupational accident or has an occupational disease, and during the period before and after childbirth under the conditions provided by Articles 154 and 156 [Art. 45]. Suspension is not cancellation: the period resumes afterwards.
Throughout the notice period, the employment relationship genuinely continues. The employer and the employee remain bound by all the reciprocal obligations incumbent upon them [Art. 47]. You work. You are paid. The commitments hold on both sides.
A notice period is not disguised leave. It is work, until the last day.
Leaving without notice: what it costs
Sometimes the law exempts you from notice. In the event of force majeure, both the employer and the employee are exempt from it [Art. 43]. During the probationary period, either party may terminate the contract without notice or indemnity — but, after at least one week of work, termination not motivated by serious misconduct requires a period: two days if the employee is paid by the day, week, or fortnight, and eight days if paid by the month [Art. 13]. A female employee whose pregnancy is attested by a medical certificate may leave her job without notice and without paying any compensatory indemnity for notice or termination [Art. 158].
Outside these cases, leaving without observing the notice period comes at a price. Any termination without notice, or without the period having been fully observed, obliges the responsible party — unless justified by serious misconduct — to pay the other a notice indemnity [Art. 51]. The amount? Equal to the remuneration the employee would have received had they remained at their post [Art. 51].
And there is an offsetting mechanism. Where an employee terminates the contract without observing the notice owed to the employer under the conditions of Article 43, the employer may offset the paid annual leave indemnity against the notice indemnity [Art. 255]. Translation: your leave balance can absorb what you owe.
Honestly, skipping the notice period without valid grounds is rarely a good deal.
Wrapping up your exit cleanly
When the contract ends in the ordinary way, documents formalise the termination. The Code refers to the phrase "free of all engagement" or any other phrase establishing that the employment contract has ended in the ordinary way [Art. 72], as part of the final settlement receipt. Read this document before signing. A signature is binding.
Keep every written record: the certified resignation, the proof of notification that fixes the notice period's starting point [Art. 44], your payslips for the notice period, the final settlement receipt [Art. 72]. If a dispute later arises over the departure date or a notice indemnity [Art. 51], these documents will make the difference.
One last thing: notice is also counted in human relationships. You may see these colleagues again elsewhere. Leave by the book, and leave on good terms.
References
- Article 13 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 34 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 43 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 44 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 45 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 47 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 51 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 72 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 158 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
- Article 255 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
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